Town Council member Matt Czajkowski, who was elected last fall, asked for the review of what other communities are doing Wednesday night.

"Most municipalities face this issue to one degree or another," he said. "[There's] no reason to think we have a monopoly on all good ideas."

Council member Sally Greene said the town researched the issue extensively in writing its aggressive panhandling ordinance and creating the Real Change from Spare Change program. The program encourages people to give money to a downtown street outreach program and education efforts instead of to panhandlers.

The program has raised about $13,000 since November, said Liz Parham, executive director of the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership. The town is also providing $15,000 in grant money for the street outreach program this coming fiscal year.

"We did do a lot of research on what other people are doing," Parham said Friday. Two students from UNC's urban and regional planning department looked at programs across the country, she said.

"We get money almost every week," Parham said. "I just got a check in today from an individual in Wilson."

Downtown businesses can put up posters and collection containers. The program also has a Web site: www.realchangefromsparechange.org


Significant concern

It was past midnight when Czaj-kowski formally asked for the review.

Council member Laurin Easthom, like Greene, said the town had researched the issue. But Czaj-kowski said panhandling and other behavior downtown remained a significant concern in the community.

Mayor Pro Tem Jim Ward, who was running the meeting because Mayor Kevin Foy was at a conference, agreed.

"It's a widely held belief that the climate downtown, especially at night, is one that turns people off," Ward said.

Several council members pressed Czajkowski to get a better idea of what he wanted.

"I don't think we want to put the National Guard on Franklin Street," member Bill Strom said.

"How realistic is it to put a panhandler in the jail," Greene said. "There's not any room in the jail. I've heard [District Attorney Jim Woodall] say that."

Member Mark Kleinschmidt asked whether Czajkowski was as concerned about drunken college students urinating on the sidewalk as he was about street people.

Czajkowski answered with a question.

"What is the kind of behavior that we as a society, defined as Chapel Hill, find acceptable?" he responded.

"It's really pretty straightforward. If you've got kids and you're walking past the Franklin Theater (sic) at 8 o'clock and there are a couple of people giving the appearance of being intoxicated, screaming obscenities, is that acceptable behavior?"

Kleinschmidt again noted the town's ordinances, but Ward said he was interested in more than enforcement.

'It could be lighting, more outreach workers," he said.

At the very least, reviewing other efforts would remind citizens that the town has not ignored their concerns.

"We've got a lot of things working against us," Ward said. "There are good reasons these people are not taken off the street and put in jail. And that needs to be communicated to the community instead of saying the Town Council is the problem."

The council asked staff to report back this fall.